The last two years have rewritten the rules of how we work. What started as an unplanned experiment, remote work quickly became the norm for corporates across the globe.
The hybrid worker of today is inherently different from the office worker of 2019. According to our findings on post-pandemic worker expectations, people in India expect to work from home more often than workers in other countries surveyed. In fact, 39% of employees in India expect to work remotely for one day a week or less; 35%, two to three days; and 27%, four to five days.
Positive spatial experience can be a powerful tool that helps people work better. Workers expect the office to be better than what they have at home. They want to connect with people in a new way, do meaningful work together, and still have their boundaries and needs for privacy respected. The ideal workspace should have an infrastructure that not only cultivates a sense of community, but also helps individuals connect in privacy or carry out focused work.
Multi-modal zones
A new source of inspiration for the workplace based on the changing needs of organisations and people is a neighbourhood — vibrant and active communities where people come together. Neighbourhoods at work provide a home base for people and teams, or departments. But they also have multi-modal spaces that cater to various types of work and can change as the needs of a team evolve. These may include phonebooths for quick call privacy, pods for small group huddles, collaborative areas for face-to-face or virtual interactions, communal areas for team-based activities and spaces for bonding, socialising, and learning with colleagues.
The world of work in the last two years has hinged on the use of technology and this will remain unchanged even as India Inc. returns to the office. Technology and the physical space need to be considered holistically to support both in-office and remote participants equally, where everyone can see and be seen, hear and be heard. For instance, every meeting space may need to be a video space with smartly designed tables to ensure that every in-room participant can also see one another in addition to being at eye level with remote colleagues thus enabling some degree of equity between people on both sides of a camera.
While the pandemic changed our perceptions of work in an instant, how we build the next version of work can be carefully assessed and implemented. By doing it well, organisations can achieve great harmony between space, collaboration and communication — and ultimately, a seamless and frictionless experience.
The writer is Managing Director (India and SAARC), Steelcase.
